BellyQ hosts cookbook debut party for Top Chef's Edward Lee

By Joe GrayTribune reporter

You may know Louisville, Ken., chef Edward Lee from “Top Chef,” the Bravo TV cooking competition show in which he sweated in the Texas sun with fellow contestants. Now you can get to know his food better through his new cookbook, “Smoke & Pickles: Recipes and Stories from a New Southern Kitchen” (Artisan, $29.95).

Lee, chef/owner of 610 Magnolia in Louisville, marries the Korean influences of his grandmother’s cooking with those of his adopted home, both of them suffused with smoke, he writes, and both with a long tradition of pickling. He brings that cooking to Chicago on Monday, in a book signing party at BellyQ — a fitting setting given its at-table grilling, kimchi and Korean influences from chef Bill Kim.

Expect cocktails and Southern/Asian bites prepared by Kim who will take his inspiration from Lee’s book; the menu includes, tamarind glazed strawberry ham, cornmeal fried oysters with lettuce wraps, pork cracklins and white pear kimchi. There will also be live bluegrass, a Jefferson’s Reserve Whiskey tasting and beer from Three Floyds.